Introduction

This article pertains to installing Arch Linux on the MSI Wind U120 netbook. It does not cover the entire installation process, but rather any quirks that are above and beyond what you might encounter during a routine Arch installation.

Hardware Specifications

The MSI Wind U120 is known to ship with a few different configurations...

Installation

Consult the standard documentation on Arch Linux installation for general installation steps. What follows are items of particular interest to U120 owners.

Dual Boot Windows/Linux

The U120 ships with three partitions (sizes are approximate):

4GB hidden partition containing system recovery information

35GB Windows XP Home system partition

90GB empty partition for general storage

If you wish to retain Windows XP, choose the manual partition method during the Arch installation and change only the third partition (sda3). You can also use a partition management program to resize the Windows XP partition before installing Arch Linux. This author used a GParted Live CD to reduce the XP partition to 25GB prior to installing Arch.

Kernel Modules (Drivers)

For the most part the hardware should Just Work™. Hardware-specific modules include:

Note: You may need to enable the webcam (Fn+F6) before using the above applications will work.

Hard Drive Clicking/Ticking

SATA power management settings are aggressively conservative by default. This can produce a clicking or ticking sound every few seconds as the hard drive head attempts to 'park' itself. Not only is this annoying, it can shorten the life of your hard drive. To avoid this: